Tom DeMarco Quotes

• Computer system analysis is like child-rearing; you can do grievous damage, but you cannot ensure success.

  Tom DeMarco

  Children, Analysis, Damage

  Tom DeMarco (1978). “Structured analysis and system specification”, Yourdon Press

  47 Copy quote

• Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That's what management is all about.

  Tom DeMarco

  Team, People, Leader

  Tom DeMarco (1997). “The deadline: a novel about project management”, Dorset House

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• You can't control what you can't measure

  Tom DeMarco

  Robert L. Glass, Tom DeMarco (2006). “Software Creativity 2.0”, p.130, developer.* Books

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• The manager's function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.

  Tom DeMarco

  People, Function, Working It

  "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams". Book by Tom DeMarco, 1987.

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• There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back.

  Tom DeMarco

  Inspiring, Live Life, Procrastination

  Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister (2013). “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”, p.35, Addison-Wesley

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• The purpose of a team is not goal attainment but goal alignment.

  Tom DeMarco

  Team, Goal, Purpose

  Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister (2013). “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”, p.136, Addison-Wesley

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• First law of Bad Management: If something isn't working, do more of it.

  Tom DeMarco

  Law, Firsts, Management

  Tom DeMarco (2001). “Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency”, p.95, Crown Business

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• If you find yourself concentrating on the technology rather than the sociology, you're like the vaudeville character who loses his keys on a dark street and looks for them on the adjacent street because, as he explains, "The light is better there."

  Tom DeMarco

  Character, Dark, Technology

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• Quality is free, but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it.

  Tom DeMarco

  Quality, Pay, Testers

  Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister (2013). “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”, p.22, Addison-Wesley

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• The more you focus on control, the more likely you're working on a project that's striving to deliver something of relatively minor value.

  Tom DeMarco

  Focus, Strive, Projects

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• The pathology of setting a deadline to the earliest articulable date essentially guarantees that the schedule will be missed.

  Tom DeMarco

  Guarantees That, Schedules, Pathology

  Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister (2013). “Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects”, p.57, Addison-Wesley

  8 Copy quote

• Organizational busy work tends to expand to fill the working day.

  Tom DeMarco

  Busy, Busy Work, Organizational

  Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister (2013). “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”, p.29, Addison-Wesley

  7 Copy quote

• The fundamental response to change is not logical, but emotional.

  Tom DeMarco

  Emotional, Fundamentals, Logical

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• Visual supervision is a joke for development workers. Visual supervision is for prisoners.

  Tom DeMarco

  Development, Prisoner, Supervision

  Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister (2013). “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”, p.164, Addison-Wesley

  10 Copy quote

• If nothing is declared unchangeable, then the organization will resist all change.

  Tom DeMarco

  Organization, Ifs, Unchangeable

  Tom DeMarco (2001). “Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency”, Broadway

  7 Copy quote

• Product quality has almost nothing to do with defects or their lack.

  Tom DeMarco

  Quality, Bugs, Programming

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• Training is practice doing a new task much more slowly than an expert would do it.

  Tom DeMarco

  Practice, Training, Experts

  Tom DeMarco (2001). “Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency”, p.195, Crown Business

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• What we are looking for is managers who are awake enough to alter the world as they find it, to make it harmonize with what they and their people are trying to accomplish.

  Tom DeMarco

  Team, People, Leader

  Tom DeMarco (1997). “The deadline: a novel about project management”, Dorset House

  6 Copy quote

• The QSM Software Almanac is an invaluable resource. It establishes a norm for software projects, including best of class, worst of class and averages. In addition, it profiles the state of the art of software construction and enhancement. I wish I'd had this wonderful reference book years ago.

  Tom DeMarco

  Art, Book, Average

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• Some of the most flowery praise you hear on the subject of teams is only hypocrisy. Managers learn to talk a good game about teams even when they're secretly threatened by the whole concept.

  Tom DeMarco

  Team, Games, Hypocrisy

  Tom DeMarco (1997). “The deadline: a novel about project management”, Dorset House

  6 Copy quote

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